GRIMMFEST 2020: Revenge Ride
Melanie Aitkenhead's feminist exploitation feature Revenge Ride wears its influences and genre on its sleeves as a fantastic gore-fuelled horror film.
At a shy seventy-three minutes in length, Revenge Ride is a film that gets straight to the point and presents its unfolding plot at a frantic pace. The precedent set has its positives and negatives: on the former, there is little excess if at all any unneeded exposition to fill in the blanks, while, on the latter side, it feels quite often that Aitkenhead's film never pauses to reflect its contextual connotations.
Granted that first and foremost this is a horror film, any deep referential reflection on offer is going to be light in form. That being said, Aitkenhead's film does deal with vital social relevancy; it particularly touches on rape culture on college campus, as well as abuse on a larger scale both internal and external. These themes, while heavy and often needing a great deal of nuance and maturity to be brought justice, are in fact implemented here with respect and poignancy.
Said themes will undoubtedly be blinded by some and arguably incensed by others. However, the gravitas and commentary Aitkenhead gives is nevertheless impacting and engaging, intertwined with the horror tropes themselves make for stimulating viewing. Yet, Aitkenhead's film has an unexpected relatively polar opinion on hope and conviction. This is a factor that feels somewhat ill-thought, but nevertheless carries some weight behind it.
All that said, when Aitkenhead wants to bring the gauntlet down on the horror tropes, she does so in a blissfully excessive and all-engulfing fashion. There are specific sequences here that are terrifying to behold, specifically, in its final act, which oversteps the mark quite a few times in Nicolas Winding Refn style. While it may be too much for some, Revenge Ride still remains appropriate concerning the context of the picture overall. Ultimately, this makes Aitkenhead's feature a fun albeit often tough watch, as well as it's full-on horror vision.
